1836.J THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. 429 



J able is, there might be no appearance of disease among 



 the crew of the ship which conveyed this destructive 



\ importation." This statement is not quite so extraordinary 



\ as it first appears ; for several cases are on record of the 



j most malignant fevers having broken out, although the 



parties themselves wlio were the cause were not affected. 



: In the early part of the reign of George III., a prisoner 



who had been confined in a dungeon, was taken in a coach 



with four constables before a magistrate ; and, although 



the man himself was not ill, the four constables died from 



a short putrid fever ; but the contagion extended to no 



others. From these facts it would almost appear as if the 



effluvium of one set of men shut up for some time together 



was poisonous when inhaled by others ; and possibly more 



so, if the men be of different races. Mysterious as this 



circumstance appears to be, it is not more surprising than 



that the body of one's fellow-creature, directly after death, 



and before putrefaction has commenced, should often be of 



so deleterious a quaHty, that the mere puncture from an 



Instrument used in its dissection, should prove fatal. 



January lyth. — Early in the morning we passed the 

 Nepean in a ferry-boat. The river, although at this spot 

 both broad and deep, had a very small body of running water. 

 Having crossed a low piece of land on the opposite side, 

 we reached the slope of the Blue Mountains. The ascent 

 is not steep, the road having been cut with much care on 

 the side of a sandstone cliffy On the summit an almost 

 level plain extends, which, rising imperceptibly to the 

 westward, at last attains a height of more than 3000 feet. 

 From so grand a title as Blue Mountains, and from their 

 absolute altitude, I expected to have seen a bold chain of 

 mountains crossing the country ; but instead of this, a 

 sloping plain presents merely, an inconsiderable front to the 

 low land near the coast. From this first slope, the view of 

 '• extensive woodland to the east was striking, and the 

 I rounding trees grew bold and lofty. But when once on 

 tiie sandstone platform, the scenery becomes exceedingly 



' (land. It is impossible that such a belief should have become universal 

 he northern hemisphere, at the Antipodes, and in the Pacific, without sonic 

 1 foundation. Humboldt ('* Polit. Lssay on Kinff of New Spain," vol. iv.) 

 >, that the great epidemics at Panama and Callao arc "marked" by the 

 val of ships from Chile, because the people from that temperate region first 

 ii'-rieiicc the fatal effects of the torrid zone:*. I may add that I have heard it 

 i<;d in Shropshire, that sheep, which have been imported from vessels, 

 lough themselves in a healthy condition, if placed in the same fold with 

 ';r8, frequently produce sickness in the Bock. 



